Gospel
What is Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted
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Biblical Theology
Biblical Theology
we talked about the importance of sound biblical theology…tonight we want to add to that...
If there is one special area that needs attention in churches today is to make sure we have a solid understanding of the gospel.
The gospel is at the heart of Christianity and should be at the heart of our churches.
Being a healthy church means we are united around the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
Every text points to this in some fashion or in some aspect...
A biblical understanding of the gospel should inform everything we do!
We should pray and long to know this gospel more deeply.
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Cor
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
Gospel Basics
Gospel Basics
How do most believers define the gospel? How do you define it?
Jesus died, was buried and rose again the third day...
This is true but it doesn’t go far enough...
it is the good news that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrificial substitute for sinners and rose again, making a way for us to be reconciled to God.
Four key elements to the gospel
Four key elements to the gospel
God — is holy and sovereign creator — Theology Proper
man — we are wonderfully made in His image, but yet horribly fallen and separated from him — Anthropology, Hamartiology
Jesus — is the God-man who uniquely and exclusively stands in between God and man as a substitute and resurrected Lord. — Christology
response — every person must respond to the gospel and believe the message and as a result turn from a life of self-centeredness and sin — Soteriology
Our fundamental problem is we need God! We need forgiveness! We need spiritual life!
Without these radical truths then what we are really presenting is a watered down version that people can easily walk away from!
Gospel — Good news
Gospel — Good news
When the NT talks about Jesus’ message of salvation, it uses the Greek word evangel…good news...
What is the message of Jesus? What is that “good news”?
It is not simply that we are okay…Anthropology, Hamartiology
It is not simply that we are okay…Anthropology, Hamartiology
Some people think that Christianity is fundamentally a religious therapy session where we sit around and try to help each other feel better about ourselves.
What does the Bible teach about man — anthropology?
Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were seduced into disobeying God and therefore we all are guilty of disobedience.
Look at
Look at
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
As a result no one enters this world on good terms with God...
Jesus tells us we need a whole new life...
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Paul tells us we have to be created again
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 cor 15:51-
We are born dead in sin
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Eph 2
Trespass/transgression is a word for sin that describes it as crossing a boundary…our sin crossed the boundary of God’s holiness…they may not seem so big to us, but they are deadly none the less.
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
James
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Is 64 6
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
What James tells us is that the laws of God are not simply external statues passed by some heavenly congress, they are laws that reflect the character of God…they are an expression of God himself…so to break any of God’s laws is live against God.
When we blatantly disregard God’s laws, when we set our relationship with Him aside when it suits us, we show we do not fully understand the nature of our relationship with God…We cannot claim to be believers and yet knowingly, repeatedly, and happily break his law.
We have crossed over the boundary that God rightly sets for our life…we have contradicted both the spirit and the letter of his law…we not only feel guilt, we are guilty…we not only feel conflicted, we are in conflict with God…that is what it means to be dead in our sin and transgression...
Lets look at
So what does all this have to do with “good news”?
If we don’t have an accurate understanding of where we are now, we will never understand how to get to where we ought to be!
The starting point for faith is not in recognizing we haven’t reached our potential or that our problems are because we have messed up our own lives…the starting point is recognizing we have sinned against God.
As a result, we are objects of God’s wrath, deserve the judgment of death, hell and separation from Him…and unless this problem is fixed we will have to endure his active punishment now and forever…TOTAL DEPRAVITY…spiritual death…death that deserves death.
This is the warning we talked about this morning...
The good news is that God developed and executed a plan that brings about a wonderful transformation in the lives of those who are willing to accept His plan.
First step of that plan is to recognize the gospel is not simply we’re okay.
The Good News is Not Simply That God is Love…Theology Proper
The Good News is Not Simply That God is Love…Theology Proper
This is often what you hear “God is love…God loves you...” but is that the whole story?
What does divine love look like? Since the Bible says that God is a Spirit, how does a Spirit love? God is also holy…How does a Holy Spirit love? How does the perfect Holy Spirit love?
Remember our framework about God…loving, creator, faithful, sovereign, holy...
We must understand his love in light of everything else God revealed about himself...
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
Yes, God is loving but there is more to Him than just love.
The Good News is Not Simply Jesus wants to be Your Friend — Christology, Soteriology
The Good News is Not Simply Jesus wants to be Your Friend — Christology, Soteriology
Some people present the gospel as “Jesus wants to be your friend” or that he wants to be our example.
The gospel is not a matter of merely cultivating a relationship with Jesus or following an example.
We all have a real past with real sins and real guilt…how do we deal with that?
What will God do with that? How can we know God without God compromising his holiness? Will God just forgive and forget our sin?
What did Jesus say about the center of His ministry?
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus taught that his choice to glorify the Father by his death on the cross was central to His ministry…that is why the cross is the center and focus of all four Gospels.
How could something so horrible be at the center of something called good news?
Because the cross is God’s way to bring us back to Himself!
Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”
They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”
And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
And He warned them to tell no one about Him.
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.
But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
“For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8
Jesus explained this event before it happened by bringing two OT prophecies together…he presents himself as the son of man in and the suffering servant of .
“I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
“And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.
Jesus’ death is often presented as a sacrifice involving his blood...
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
What was the most important feast the Jews celebrated?
The Passover
Why did Jesus choose to die at the Passover?
Because the wanted to make it clear that he was dying as an atoning sacrifice.
What does this have to do with are slavery to sin?
This is where we examine the economic language used about Christ’s death...
Redeemed = means we have been bought out of slavery…just like God bought and brought Israel out of slavery to the Egyptians, so we as Christians have been bought and brought out of slavery to sin...
Jesus’ death was the price paid for our freedom from sin…it is how God redeemed us from our slavery to sin…Galatians.
Examine the relational language...
Through Jesus death, God reconciled himself to us…our fellowship is restored because the root of the hostility in that relationship has been dealt with...
Examine the legal language...
Examine the legal language
The NT speaks of Jesus’ death in terms that the reality of our guilt before God and the punishment we deserve is settled...
Justification…declaration of not guilty…describing the events of Christ’s death in terms of our penalty being transferred to him.
Examine the military language...
The Bible speaks of the world as a spiritual battlefield…we are told in Scripture that Jesus’ death on the cross has delivered us and disarmed the enemy.
When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
John 19
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”
reconciliation = term that indicates enmity between two parties has been resolved...
propitiation = God’s wrath has been turned away so that he can deal justly with sinners in terms of his love rather than in terms of his wrath.
All of this is not something that is merely potential or optional…it is actual…it not only has been made available, it has been secured by Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection to life...
The cross is central to the good news because it was the instrument by which God was effectively dealing with the claims of both his love and his justice.
Yes, Jesus is our friend, but He is much more…he was the Lamb that was slain for us, our Redeemer, the One who made peace between us and God, who took our guilt upon Himself, who conquered our most deadly enemy and turn God’s well-deserved wrath away.
and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”
And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
The Good News is Not Simply God will Renew Creation
The Good News is Not Simply God will Renew Creation
One popular error is the idea that the Bible’s good news is God is remaking the world…restoring peace and that we should join him in that work.
Corrections needed
The gospel is not something we do, it is something we proclaim.
not about what we are doing, but about what God is doing, has done and will do.
It also cannot leave us passive
We are told to eat the bread and drink the wine at the Lord’s Supper
We are told to step into the waters of baptism
We are called to live new lives, bear fruit in keeping with repentance and acknowledge Jesus before men
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
mat 10 32
We are commanded to obey everything Jesus taught
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The Good News Demands a Response!
The Good News Demands a Response!
What is the gospel?
It is the good news that the one and only God, who is holy made us in his image to know him. But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him. In His love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of the world. He rose again from the dead, showing that God had accepted His sacrifice and that God’s wrath was turned away, making man savable. He completed his work and ascended to His Father and now sends out His Spirit to call us through this message to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone for our forgiveness. If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God.
His righteousness has been exchanged for our sin…he died in our place as our substitute…this is at the heart of the message.
This calls for radical response…it is not an additive that can make our lives better…it is a message of wonderful good news for those who realize their desperation before God...
What is an acceptable response to the gospel?
The Bible speaks of nothing like walking down an aisle, filling out a card, raising a hand, making an appointment with the pastor, or deciding to be baptized and joining a church...
The Bible does declare that our response should be to repent and believe…repent of our sins and rely on Christ alone.
Repentance and Belief
Repentance and Belief
solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
What is repentance?
Repentance = literally means “to change your mind”...simply turning from our sin…to recognize you are a sinner and renounce sin…repentance and belief are often mentioned together in the NT...
What are we to believe?
The gospel message is true…not a mental assent like we believe George Washington was the first president…it is believing in and fully relying on the good news of salvation…we must assent that we are unable to satisfy God’s demands on us no matter how morally we live…not trust a little in yourself and a little in God…Christ alone!
True belief requires repentance because there must be an acknowledgment of the need for change!
Repentance & belief are two sides to the same coin...
It is not believe first and then add some repentance later when you decide you want to get holy.
Repentance happens when we begin thinking about God and ourselves correctly!
When our mind is truly changed, our life changes!
Christianity is a radical about face, a turning around…this happens when we come to rely on Christ’s finished work on the cross...
To say that you trust without living like you do is not biblical trust!
Our behavior changes because our belief changes…only happens as a result of God working in us!
Many believers think that evangelism involves a systematic presentation of the gospel, going door to door, inviting friends to church, or raising a hand in response to a message....
Conclusion
Conclusion
The good news says something about us, about God, about Jesus…it is either right or wrong…either we are sinful or we are not sinful…either God exists or He doesn’t…He is who the Bible says He is or He is not…either Jesus died on the cross and rose again or He did not...
When you speak the gospel what are you saying?
At a minimum your gospel conversations ought to include truth about
God — is holy and sovereign creator
Evangelism happens when believers share the truth of how they have been impacted by Christ on a daily basis.
man — we are wonderfully made in His image, but yet horribly fallen and separated from him
Jesus — is the God-man who uniquely and exclusively stands in between God and man as a substitute and resurrected Lord.
response — every person must respond to the gospel and believe the message and as a result turn from a life of self-centeredness and sin.
We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
Faithful preaching to the Scripture that is personally challenging, and central to the congregation’s life…Scripture is the highest authority.
Teaching that